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Texas Chili-Veggie Style

Yesterday it snowed and snowed and snowed. Yipee! Nothing like a blanket of white to get you in the Christmas spirit AND in the spirit of making something in the crock pot.

I love Texas Style Chili– to me that means spicy, thick, beef cubes and beans. This time however, I left the meat out and tried something a little different. What came out was fantastic! So take off your filters about what chili has to have in it and come along to try a twist on a pretty traditional chili recipe.

Dump everything in your crock pot, mix it up a bit and set on high for 4 hours or low for 7-8. Easy huh? No cooking anything in a saute pan, just toss it all in the crock!

So easy! As evidence of that I will tell you that I had 18 minutes yesterday before I had a call that I needed to get onto. I set my timer, and I had 3 minutes remaining after I completed this AND cleaned up the dishes! That is EASY and FAST!

A side note about the chickpeas (or garbanzos which they are also called). A few months ago I converted from using canned beans to dry beans. One, they are cheaper and two, I think they taste so much better! I use chickpeas when I make hummus (recipe in the future) and I always have some chick peas left, which is what made me think of using them in the chili. To get your chickpeas ready, I use a crock pot. One pound of dry beans, cover with water and add 1 tsp of baking soda. Set crock on high for 4 hours and you have perfect chick peas. I saw Alton Brown do this and figured if it was good enough for him, then it was good enough for me! 🙂

Or you can do your chickpeas in a pressure cooker. I have never done this, but on our Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop yesterday, Clearwater Farm shared how she does this.

So, back to chili….the spices and tomatoes and onions and peppers all worked perfectly together with the chick peas. We topped with some shredded cheddar. You can see I have a pup that is a willing participant of licking up any cheese shreds that may happen down to the floor. She is on duty and waiting!

We also added some diced green onion and jalapenos. Serve with a side of tortillas (recipe here) and you will be in heaven. It was the perfect cold weather meal. We may just do that again tonight!